The Never Ending Lemon – An RX-8 Adventure

Today is Saturday, December 22nd. Seven days ago, last Friday, I picked up my car after its most recent warranty repair session. Trying to win my love, the dealership had detailed and waxed my baby; after having ripped her completely to shreds to replace the wiring harness. No matter how much polish and wax you apply, my car will never really be the same.

The first thing I noticed was that, while driving in a straight line down the road, the steering wheel was a few degrees off to the left. So I had to take it into the shop, losing another day of my car on top of the ninety five it had previously spent in the shop for warranty work.

Last night it was particularly cold, and for the first time since picking it up I cranked up the heat. That's when I realized that the air ducting is fracked up. No longer do I get split-level heat at the floor and vents. I was not looking forward to having to take it in so the dash can be disassembled and rebuilt again.

The icing on the cake was slopped down on me less than thirty minutes ago. Mel and I were driving back from groceries and the airbag light in the driver's console started flickering. I look over to the passenger side, and sure enough the passenger airbag had disabled itself again. This is the problem for which it has spent fifty-eight days in the shop, so far... They have replaced the seat sensor, the control module, the seat track, and the entire wiring harness; and the problem is back already! Thank the gods I didn't take their offer of 'compensation' seriously. Less than three days after that discussion the problem would have returned and I would have been stuck back at square one.

Will someone at Mazda grow some fucking reproductive organs and a backbone and commit to replacing this damned 2007 Mazda RX-8 GT Lemon?

2 Replies to “The Never Ending Lemon – An RX-8 Adventure”

Hello – I caught wind of your saga because I subscribe to a service called Buzztracker.com that gives me a feed of new articles mentioning the keyword Mazda. I don’t work for or promote Mazda other than I am an enthusiast of the Miata generation, so by participating in local SCCA autocrosses and the occasional summertime cruise-ins, etc. I am in fact promoting Mazda as a fun-to-drive automaker.

BUT it’s the same kind of activity you might want to employ in order to coax Mazda N.A. into gear… I would say… have a couple of foam boards made up with your service record woes, etc., much the same way you explain everything in this blog… then enter your car in one of the numerous car shows there in California… take pics and/or youtube video of your display & of you discussing your service problems and forward this bad press to Mazda… if they hadn’t heard about it already. Concentrate on the area of the Laguna Raceway too.

As a pure import (like the Miata) RX-8 parts almost have to always be imported as well. The club trips we take with our Miatas in the Appalachian mountain area often have us driving side-by-side with sport bike riders… I would have guessed that a late-model 2nd gen Miata would have been a good choice for you if you don’t care for the current body style 🙂 In my experience, the MX-5s have enjoyed a service record alot like Timex, or Maytag.

I was just talking to my fiance last night about the idea of putting some signs in the window of my car detailing my hassles, and parking it on the street in front of the dealership. When the GM calls me I’ll give him the number of the customer support agent ‘reviewing’ my lemon law claim, and let him know that is the only person with the power to get the car moved off of the public street. 🙂